In 2000, Tom Andrews of the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre in Yellowknife carried out limited archaeological testing in the northeastern portion of the Fort Simpson Heritage Park where the Fort Simpson Historical Society hopes to eventually relocate a heritage building (the R.C. rectory). This brief project demonstrated that buried archaeological deposits did in fact exist there.  As a result, additional work was required in order to better evaluate the potential significance of these remains so that the Historical Society’s plans did not destroy valuable heritage remains. It was with this goal in mind that a small crew of volunteers carried out archaeological fieldwork in the Fort Simpson Heritage Park during the 2002 field season.  This project was sponsored by the Fort Simpson Historical Society and supported by the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre and the Canadian Museum of Civilization.

While artifacts were found in all of Tom Andrews’ 2000 soil auger test pits, one in particular suggested that wooden structural remains, perhaps from old foundations, lay deeply buried in one of these test holes.  We therefore established four 3 metre long x 50 cm wide test trenches in such a way as to hopefully intercept whatever it was that had prevented the soil auger from penetrating any deeper.  The identity of this obstacle remains uncertain, but we did manage to locate artifacts and features that provide a much better idea of some of the events that have taken place within that portion of the Heritage Park within the last two centuries or more.

A first observation is provided by the stratigraphy or layers of soil which we dug through.  The upper 30 cm or so of soil, in all test trenches, showed that there had been very serious disturbance of the ground surface in this area, probably at the beginning of the XXth century.  From our reading of these layers, this disturbance appears to have involved ploughing.  This activity completely mixed the artefacts which occurred in the soil, such that XXth century artefacts which should have been near the surface were found deeply buried while XIXth century items were found near the surface. 
 

In one trench, affectionately known as Heather’s trench, a deep pit was found.  However, we only realized that this pit was near 1m40 in depth in the last days of the excavation and so very little of the pit’s interior was actually exposed.  We found that following the initial digging out of this pit, the bottom was levelled with a layer of heavy silt/clay, on top of which a thick layer of wood and bark chips was lain (on the order of 2 cm in thickness).  This was repeated at least twice with the addition of 20-25 cm of silt/clay and a layer of bark/wood chips on top.  Unfortunately very few artefacts were found in these fill layers.  However, this technique is one that has been documented at fur trade posts across Canada where this is a common way of lining the bottom of a cellar under a house or an ice house. 

In light of this possible interpretation, it is interesting to read W.F. Wentzel’s journal kept at the Fort of the Forks in the first decade of the XIXth century.  In it he describes roots cellars for the garden’s produce as well as an ice house. 

"October 21, 1807 “Gibeau & Tremp squaring wood for the Ice House - Dug out 9 feet long 4 ½ broad & 5 ½ feet deep in the earth.”

Given the fact that the feature that we found lies relatively far from the compact compound of the HBC, we are suggesting that the pit in Heather’s Trench may in fact be the remains of either an ice house or a root cellar associated with the Fort of the Forks. Unfortunately the ploughing which disturbed the upper soil layers in this part of the Heritage Park also likely destroyed any building foundations that might have existed there as well.  Only the full excavation of this pit and perhaps exploration for other similar features would help determine the true identity and age of the pit with any certainty. 
 

This work at Fort Simpson, at or near the site of the Fort of the Forks was particularly meaningful on a very personal level.  During the winter of 1810-11 conditions were so severe that five members of the local Native band died of starvation as well as 4 individuals of the post’s complement of over-wintering men.  One of these was François Pilon a distant relative of mine.  This summer, for a few brief moments, my daughter Laina (who performed wonderfully as an archaeological field assistant) and I bent our heads and remembered our kin who died there nearly two centuries ago.  We were the first relatives of his to stand and cry over his grave so far removed from his home on the Island of Montréal that he likely so yearned to see one last time before he closed his eyes forever.
 

All photographs with permission J-L Pilon

Fort Simpson 2003

More Expeditions